


Pearlnet Hogwarts AU

by Andwecanmessaround



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Amethyst and Pearl are siblings, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lapis and Peridot are cousins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-03-31 20:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3990964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andwecanmessaround/pseuds/Andwecanmessaround
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of one shots of Pearl and Garnet's relationship throughout their years at Hogwarts. Not in any kind of chronological order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Lake

Summer in sixth year almost felt a little anticlimactic after the intense pressure of OWLs the year before, not that Pearl considered that a bad thing. Not when it gave the opportunity for lazy Saturdays to spend like this anyway, she thought to herself as she adjusted her position and draped herself more comfortably across her girlfriend’s sleeping body. The two had spent most of the day relaxing under the shade of a large cherry tree on a hill overlooking the Great Lake, for respite from the sweltering heat. The tree was covered with unnaturally large pastel pink blossoms, Pearly watched one with tired eyes as it spiralled gracefully down to the grass, dissolving into pink glitter the second it touched the ground. The breeze rustling the branches of the trees which curved over their heads, holding thick curtains of twigs and flowers that cascaded to the floor and afforded both shade and a little privacy (leading to this spot being fairly infamous among the older students). The far off shouts of excitable first years running around by the lake were muffled through the veil of leaves, she wondered what they were so excited about. Trying to catch a glimpse of the giant squid no doubt; it often drifted to the surface on summer days to bask lazily in the heat, only to have its slumber disturbed by yelling first years. 

Pearl was feeling pretty sleepy herself, before she knew it she was groggily opening her eyes to find the sun slightly lower in the sky. She still had both arms around her girlfriend’s neck, and as she sat up Pearl dusted the pink blossom glitter from them both, then straightened the red and gold tie around her girlfriend’s neck, before sighing at how fat the tie knot was and undoing the whole thing to redo it properly. Garnet opened one eye when Pearl had finished, and raised an eyebrow. 

“It’s the weekend Pearl,” she pointed out, pushing the rolled sleeves of her white shirt back up to her elbows and smirking a little when Pearl couldn’t help but glance down at Garnet’s arms, which were toned and muscled from years as a quidditch Beater, “uniform policy doesn’t apply.”

Pearl was as always immaculately dressed, in a thin white button up shirt and a grey skirt identical to Garnet’s (robes and jumpers were abandoned by most students in the summer in order to stay cool). But whereas Garnet’s collar and sleeves were unbuttoned and rolled up, Pearl’s remained down and fastened correctly, her shirt tucked in instead of hanging over her skirt like the Garnet’s did. 

“The captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team should be setting an example,” Pearl pointed out. 

“Oh really,” Garnet’s tone was playful “and what kind of example is a Ravenclaw prefect setting by fraternising with the enemy?”

“If you’re not careful I’ll have to dock some points from your house for that backchat,” Pearl said, her mouth pulled up at both the edges and trembling slightly with the knowledge of how ridiculous that threat was, as she climbed onto Garnet’s lap facing her and they pressed their lips together in a chaste but affectionate kiss, pulling apart to look into each other’s eyes for a second before Pearl wound her hands back around Garnet’s neck and pulled her in for a more passionate kiss. 

The two had only been together for two months, and despite being told to rein in the public displays of affection a few times by their friends, it was so easy to forget yourself and your surroundings when the person you’ve wanted to be with for so long is making out with you, their body wrapped around your own, and wearing a tight thin white blouse that clings to their body. Garnet undid the top two buttons of Pearl’s shirt and gently started sucking on her neck before Pearl pushed her off. Garnet quickly removed her hands as well and looked at Pearl, worried she’d gone too far. 

“First years…might..see. Garnet.” Pearl panted, strawberry blonde hair falling messily around her face to frame flushed red cheeks. One of the Gryffindor’s favourite parts of finally dating the prim, neatly dressed Ravenclaw girl, was getting to see how much only Garnet could undo that proper demeanour and quickly have Pearl a blushing, dishevelled mess, as she quickly cast a minor illusory spell and muffliato, which should keep away other students at least, then rolled them both over so Pearl was lying on her back on the grass with Garnet leaning over her, one hand on each side of her. The two grinned at each other and Garnet intertwined their hands, then lifted them over and above Pearl’s head and gently pushed them on the grass. 

“How many points am I getting docked for my wicked mouth then?” Garnet asked, still hovering over Pearl. 

“You know if we went back to my dorm you could stop being an ass and use your mouth for…fraternising instead.” Pearl pointed out, smirking a little despite her blush. 

“Now that sounds like a plan,” Garnet murmured, and was leaning in for another kiss when there was an ear piercing shriek. The two girls leapt to their feet and looked around, but there was no scandalised first year looking at them. Instead a small girl was screaming for help by the lake side. Garnet hastily dispelled the illusion and the muffling charm as Pearl tucked her shirt back in, buttoned up her shirt and smoothed her hair back into shape, continuing to fix her appearance as the two sprinted down the hill towards the distressed kid. 

“Help him!” The first year pleaded as the two drew closer, and Garnet recognised her as one of the first year Slytherins she sometimes saw waiting outside the dungeon classroom after Garnet’s potions lessons there. She was the potions master’s daughter, Connie? Garnet was pretty sure her name was Connie. 

“Help who?” Garnet asked, kneeling down to match the girls height. 

“My friend! Steven, he was in a bubble on top of the water but it popped and now…” the girl pointed to a small splashing figure about a mile out into the centre of the lake “I don’t think he’s a strong swimmer.” 

Garnet looked at her girlfriend.

“Get him out of the water,” she said in a calm voice. 

“Ascendio,” Pearl said, and at the same time Garnet cried “Accio broom!” 

Steven rose vertically out of the water, stopping to rest a couple of metres above it. 

“Hurry Garnet,” Pearl said between gritted teeth as a broom hurtled towards the taller girl and she ran towards it, looking back worriedly at Pearl. The concentration required to maintain a spell at this distance was increasing with time, and only made harder for Pearl by the small boy thrashing around in the air. 

“Got it,” Garnet leapt on and kicked off, speeding low across the water and coming to a stop next to the boy. Pearl released the spell and Garnet caught Steven and shuffled backwards on the broom to put him in front of her. 

As she returned to dry land and Pearl lifted the boy off the front of the broom, the potions master Mrs Maheswaran was striding across the field, surrounded by a small throng of first years. 

“Out of the way,” the potions teacher snapped at the kids, before removing her cape and wrapping it round the shivering Steven. “What were you doing on the lake? You know it’s out of bounds without permission.”

Steven hung his head “the squid seemed lonely, I thought I could go talk to it.”

Mrs Maheswaran sighed. 

“I’m going to have to dock 20 points from Gryffindor.” she said, turning to the two sixth years. 

“As for you two, ten points each awarded to your respective houses should be fair. Don’t you have some studying you could be doing? Don’t think you can use this year as an excuse to slack off, or you’ll be completely unprepared for your NEWTS next year.” 

“Yes Ma'am,” Pearl said, and the two started walking back to the castle. 

Once they were inside the two turned to each other. 

Garnet linked arms with Pearl.

“So, studying…my dorm or yours?” She said, winked, and laughed when Pearl rolled her eyes.


	2. The Fight

There was a pair of glowing dots at the bottom of the long dark corridor to her left. She prayed it was just a pair of foolish first years, also out after curfew, who hadn’t learned yet that casting lumos was the quickest way to get caught by Filch. But she also knew she wasn’t that lucky. She slowly turned her head to look. 

Mrs Norris. Shit. 

Garnet cursed, turned tail and sprinted back down the corridor she’d come from as the feline began loudly wailing. 

“I hate that cat,” Garnet said through gritted teeth as she turned left, she was halfway across the west wing of the fourth floor before her brain caught up and she realised she was going in the opposite direction to the Gryffindor common room. 

“I know you’re down there,” Filch’s voice echoed down the corridor and Garnet nearly screamed when an invisible arm shot out and pulled her sideways, before she felt another hand – awkwardly holding a wand, which at least reassured Garnet that it wasn’t the squib caretaker kidnapping her - clamp itself over her mouth and she was dragged into the broom closet . The door closed in front of her, leaving complete darkness. The person let go of her and muttered ‘Colloportus.’ The door lock clicked and the tension left Garnet’s body as she recognised her best friend’s voice. 

“Pearl? What are you doing out after curfew?” Garnet struggled awkwardly in the cramped broom closet but finally managed to turn around to face Pearl,trying very hard not to think about the sensation of being pressed up against the other girl, and thankful for the dark. 

“Muffliato.” Pearl cast the soundproofing enchantment and removed the disillusionment charm she’d placed upon herself, before answering her “I heard you got into another argument with Peridot during Transfiguration and arranged to have a duel with her, she was talking about it with her friends when she got in a couple of minutes ago. The last time you got into a duel it was with that enormous Gryffindor friend of Peridot’s and you had to spend the night in the hospital wing, so I thought it was in your best interest that I went looking for you to make sure you weren’t lying unconscious in a stairwell.”

“Jasper,” Garnet hissed as Pearl gently touched the bruise on the side of her face, “Yeah she turned up again, I won this time though.” 

The two both jumped and grabbed each other tightly as the door handle rattled, Pearl letting out a high pitched squeal as she buried her head into Garnet’s chest. 

After an extremely tense pause the rattling stopped, and they heard Filch grumbling to himself as his footsteps receded slightly and he began loudly rattling another door. 

“Lucky you cast that muffling charm,” Garnet noted, as the two pulled apart as far as they could, which wasn’t much. Was it just Garnet’s imagination or was it really hot in here? She wiped her clammy hands on her skirt surreptitiously and tried very hard not to think about how one of her legs was trapped between Pearl’s thighs, or that the other girl’s face was only inches from her own. She spent what felt like an eternity trapped in the closet, listening to the caretaker slamming open doors in the distance, breathing in the familiar scent of Pearl’s muggle brand strawberry shampoo and regulating her breathing carefully so she didn’t do anything reckless… like grab her best friend’s face and ask if she could start making out with her, for example. They heard a cry of frustration and Filch walked past their hideout again a few minutes later. 

“Wait outside the common room, they’ll have to go back there.” He spat. “Probably a Gryffindor, breaking the rules as usual.” Garnet snickered. He continued grumbling to himself with various mentions of what he would’ve done to the kid when he caught them if the headmaster had listened to his ideas to bring back medieval punishment, eventually they couldn’t hear him anymore as he presumably headed to lurk outside the Gryffindor common room. 

“You think this is funny?”

Even in the pitch black Garnet could feel when Pearl was glaring at her. It didn’t prepare her for just how angry her Ravenclaw friend looked though when the strawberry blonde lit up their wand and extricated themselves from the awkward embrace to press themselves against the wall furthest from Garnet. 

“Well he’s not wrong.” Garnet pointed out, flattening herself against the opposite wall and very determinedly trying not to look at Pearl, but at the same time noticing the thin tight vest and shorts that the Ravenclaw was wearing as pyjamas and feeling her face heat up, ashamed of herself for this stupid teenage crush. Why, out of everyone in the school, had she picked this nagging, obsessively tidy, irritating Ravenclaw to befriend and then fall for? (A million reasons started formulating in her mind and she angrily shoved them aside it focus on the look of anger on her friend’s face, the distance in her eyes.

They were still only inches apart but it felt like miles to the Gryffindor. The broom cupboard suddenly felt cold, and she shuddered involuntarily. 

“Garnet!” Pearl hissed angrily, in a loud whisper, “don’t you think you should be taking this a little more seriously? If I hadn’t been here he would’ve caught you, and then you’d have gotten into huge trouble! We’re fourth years now, we’re supposed to be setting an example. We’re sitting our OWLs next year for Merlin’s sake! You can’t keep getting into fights anymore.” 

“Not this again,” Garnet rolled her eyes. 

“Am I supposed to be supportive of my best friend getting herself beaten up and breaking the school rules?” 

“So, what, am I supposed to just let people like Jasper push me around and bully everyone? Not happening.” Garnet said. 

“You’re supposed to report it through the proper channels! To a teacher! Or a prefect.” 

“Im not a snitch. You gonna criticise me all night? Cause I’d rather you just left now, I can’t be bothered with the lecture, heard it all before.” Garnet was feeling hot again, this time the sensation was accompanied by rage and a pounding headache. She just wanted to go back to her dorm and sleep but Filch would be patrolling round there for at least another hour. 

Pearl’s eyes were tearing up, and Garnet mercilessly squashed down the feelings of guilt that immediately bubbled up, before she could show any sign of weakness. 

“Garnet, Professor Vidalia called me into her office the other day. She said she was considering selecting me for a Ravenclaw prefect next year but that she was worried about ‘influences around me’. I can’t afford to sabotage that. She said she had been talking with the head of your house and they were even considering making you captain of the quidditch team at the end of last year before you blew it with that fight with Jasper on the pitch! If you keep this up they’re gonna throw you off the team!”

“I don’t start any of these fights!” Garnet yelled, “And quit acting so innocent. You made the choice to come out here tonight! You should’ve just stayed in bed if you only came out to talk to me like this.” 

“The way Peridot and her friends were talking I thought they’d beaten you half to death! Garnet…” Pearl’s voice cracked as she said her friend’s name, then she suddenly slammed her fist off the wall to her left angrily and started sobbing as a mop and bucket fell over noisily, “I’m sick of the fighting and the trouble. I keep getting caught in the middle of it and my other friends don’t want to be associated with me in case it makes Jasper angry with them because everyone knows I’m friends with you. I don’t think I can cope with it any more.”

“We can’t all be a teacher’s pet like you Pearl, I am who I am. If you don’t like it then…then it’s probably for the best if you stop being around me.” Garnet said, swallowing back the painful lump in her throat.

“If that’s what you want. Fine.” Pearl alohamora-d the door and left, quietly but firmly closing the door behind her. 

Garnet waited a while to make sure she’d definitely gone before she began sliding down the wall to the floor, pulling her knees up to hide her face to muffle the sound of herself crying. 

______________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long to copy the works from my fic!bomb from my tumblr to my Ao3, it totally exhausted me and in the end I only got 5 out of 7 works done in a week (and twoof those was a 3000 fic split in two parts), but hey at least I learned my limits! I'm gonna try and update everything now so sorry everything is getting put up at once.


	3. Furretumfors

The small purple blur tackled Garnet as she entered the Gryffindor common room. With a short yell of surprise she managed to throw the thing off the opposite wall but as she went to hit it with her bag it screamed at her.

“Wait!” There was no mistaking the voice, it was Amethyst, a third year Gryffindor who was permanently involved in some kind of trouble. They _also_ happened to be the step sister of Garnet’s former best friend. 

“Why are you a ferret?” Garnet asked. 

“Jenny and I found this doorway to a secret room behind a statue on the fifth floor, near the astronomy tower. There was tons of cool stuff in it!” The ferret danced around on their hind legs excitedly, jumping onto a table. 

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re a ferret.”

“I picked up an amulet and it did this to me. It’s probably temporary, but…”

“But you don’t know for sure. Where’s your friend now?” Amethyst and the young Hufflepuff were usually inseparable, much like she and Pearl had been until their fight a couple of months ago. 

“Jenny? She went to the library looking for instructions to reverse it, I said I’d go find my sister but I couldn’t do the riddle so I came back here for you. If anyone knows how to reverse a transfiguration curse, it’s Pearl. She’s a total nerd, she’ll have this figured out in not time. Uhh… not that I don’t think you’re smart though G! I mean you’re totally smart, that’s why I know you’ll get the riddle.”

“S’cool. I hate transfiguration.” Pearl had always excelled in transfiguration, it suited her scientific mind. She’d heard that the Ravenclaw was even sitting her OWL in the subject a year early. Garnet preferred more open ended classes, like divination and astronomy, where rigid adherence to a set of rules wasn’t necessary to produce the best result.

“Well, I’m sure Jenny can help you get her, good luck with your hex reversal.”Garnet turned away to walk towards the stairs. 

“You’re not gonna just leave me are you? What if I get stepped on?” the ferret said, making their eyes as big and round as they could. 

Garnet sighed, cursing herself for being unable to resist the younger girl’s pleading voice and mentally waving goodbye to the relaxing Friday night she’d envisioned on her way back to the dorms. 

“Course not. Just let me put my bag away.”  
_______________________

She walked towards the Ravenclaw tower at the fastest pace she could without being stopped by a teacher, constantly aware of the weight of the curled up ferret in the inside pocket of her robes. She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of apprehension as she passed the broom cupboard on the fourth floor, where she and Pearl had fallen out just before Christmas. What if the Ravenclaw didn’t even give Garnet the chance to explain what was going on? What if she called for a prefect? Since students were only into the common rooms as guests of a student from that house, Garnet was technically trespassing if Pearl didn’t want to take responsibility as her host. But Pearl wouldn’t do that to her… _right?_ She hurried up the stairs just past the broom cupboard , up to the fifth floor, and turned left to travel down the short corridor and halt abruptly at the door. 

Garnet couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia as she stared at the familiar royal blue door, in the centre of which was an ornate bronze door knocker in the shape of an eagle. She lifted the cool metal handle and rapped twice on the door, and waited for it to speak. 

**“I grow shorter as I get older, what am I?”**

Garnet paused for thought. 

“A candle.” She said finally, with an air of confidence, and the door swung open. 

Once inside she spotted Pearl immediately, slumped over some books by herself at a desk on the left hand side of the wide, circular common room. The dull light of a cold and cloudy March evening streamed in through the large windows, adding a grey tint to her peaky skin. There were a few other students on the other side of the room, making some kind of purple smoke emerge from their wands while one of the, furiously scribbled down notes. 

“Pearl?” Garnet said softly as she took a seat opposite her. 

“What do you want?” Pearl huffed in annoyance, not even deviating her eyes from her work to look at the Gryffindor. 

“We have…an emergency. Believe me we wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t important.” 

“We?” The Ravenclaw raised her eyes to meet Garnet’s, and the Gryffindor couldn’t help but notice with a rush of worry how bloodshot they were. 

_She looks so…tired._

“Hey sis,” Garnet cringed as a ferret loudly burst out of her robe pocket to jump onto Pearl’s work “what G-dog here is trying to say is that we have a situation here, I was sorta hoping you could help me out.”

Pearl stared at the ferret before looking at Garnet. 

“Amethyst? Is that? How…? I don’t wanna know.” 

“You know it!” Amethyst answered cheerily, and Pearl’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t look at me,” Garnet responded to Pearl’s glare “she got herself into this one. I wasn’t even there!”

“She had nothing to do with it!” Amethyst said hastily, “I just needed her help to get in here.”

“I can go now though.” Garnet said. 

Amethyst jumped around the desk agitatedly, scattering papers everywhere. 

“No, we might need your help! Right P?” 

The Ravenclaw reluctantly agreed, attempting to keep their face and tone as neutral as possible.

They walked to the library together in an awkward silence, both glancing at each other every few seconds but looking away if they made eye contact. Garnet rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably and sighed audibly in relief when they saw Jenny at a table, and rushed over to join her, sitting as far apart from Pearl as possible. Jenny’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two for a second, but she elected - wisely - not to comment on the tension between the two fourth years and instead pointed to a paragraph in one of the several open books arranged across the table. In the centre of the table, an amulet lay half wrapped in a cloth. Enough of the jewellery was visible to see that it matched the diagram in the book Jenny had indicated. 

“One of us needs to break the gem in the amulet as another casts this reversing spell. The incantation seems simple enough,” Jenny pointed to a diagram on the opposite page, “but the wand movements and timing seem tricky, and we’ve never done transfiguration of a living thing before. We were wondering if you could…”

Pearl rubbed the dark purple bags under her eyes wearily. 

“I know the spell, _furettumfors._ It’s a common enough incantation…but I really think you should go to the medical wing and have Yellowtail look at it. I’m not a professional healer like them and if something goes wrong…” 

“If something goes wrong we’ll get them involved! Please Pearl? I don’t wanna get banned from Hogsmeade.” Amethyst pleaded and Pearl groaned. 

“Oh all right then, but don’t blame me if you end up with a tail. One of you two needs to break the gem in that amulet with a spell, don’t touch it whatever you do.”

“I’ll do it.” Garnet drew her wand and pointed it at the amulet “I’m 1,2..3!”

“ _Furettumfors!_ ” Pearl cast the spell at Amethyst as Garnett called out at the same time. 

“ _Reducto!_ ” the amulet shattered into several tiny pieces, which Garnet vanished with a muttered ‘ _evanesco_ ’ and a swish of her wand. Amethyst’s form exploded outwards back into a human shape. 

“You did it, see I knew you two could work togeth…I have whiskers.” Amethyst paused to look at them curiously for a second before starting to panic. 

“Hold still,” Pearl said, Garnet grabbed the younger Gryffindor’s shoulders to hold them down as they immediately began squirming about, “ _Reparifage._ ” The Ravenclaw said and the whiskers instantly vanished. 

Amethyst patted her face all over then grinned. 

“Thanks dudes, great teamwork all around! Now if you don’t mind, I wanna go throw things at the angry tree!” 

Garnet caught the younger Gryffindor by the collar of her robes. “Oh no you don’t. You’re staying where I can keep an eye on you.”

“That’s probably a good idea, I need to get some work done anyway,” Jenny said “we can all go to the Gryffindor common room right?”

“Uh,” Garnet looked over at Pearl who was studiously examining the grain of the wooden table “you can come if you want. Both of you, I mean.”

Pearl nodded without looking at Garnet as they all made their way to the common room, and Garnet resisted the urge to scream at the Ravenclaw for being so hostile. _Patience_. Patience was all that stopped her, Garnet thought as she gritted her teeth, but patience was a finite resource, and Pearl was on a very limited amount of time before Garnet’s ran out.   
_____________

Garnet sat on one of the soft red couches in front of the fire, playing noughts and crosses with Amethyst via coloured paint they made hang in the air with their wands, whilst Jenny and Pearl sat at a desk studying. Garnet had some work she needed to do herself, but the only available chair at the desk was next to Pearl, so she settled for practicing some of her charms spells, amusing Amethyst with a flock of tiny little multicoloured birds flying through the air. Amethyst sent smoke rings around the room, and Garnet sent them flying through the rings, before the younger Gryffindor decided to knock the birds out of the air one by one with blobs of paint, and they vanished as they were knocked out of the sky. As three hours went by the other students gradually left to go upstairs. The sconces on the wall dimmed and eventually switched off, until only the four of them were left in the common room, lit only now by the light of the fire and a small floating white light Jenny had conjured above the desk.

Garnet was halfway through painting her nails with a Polishing charm when Amethyst yawned exaggeratedly. 

“Well, I think it’s time I went to bed.” She jumped to her feet. 

“Amethyst, we still don’t know if you’re suffering from any side effects.” Pearl said sharply. 

“I could stay over and keep an eye on her?” Jenny suggested, standing up and immediately being grabbed by the hand by Amethyst, who shouted excitably about a sleepover and dragged her Hufflepuff friend rapidly up the stairs before Pearl could stop them. 

“Reminds me of when you used to stay round here with me all the time,” a Garnet chuckled, forgetting for a second that the two weren’t speaking in the relaxed atmosphere, which guttered and died in an instant (along with Jenny’s floating light) as Pearl simply made an annoyed noise and started packing her stuff. 

“What is your problem Pearl? I didn’t expect a thank you for helping save your sister’s butt, but an acknowledgement of my existence would be nice!” Garnet had finally reached her limit. 

“Isn’t someone being rather hypocritical here? You’re criticising me for ignoring you?” Pearl said haughtily. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re the one who blew up at me in a broom cupboard three months ago and hasn’t spoken to me since!” Garnet fought to keep her voice low so she wouldn’t wake anyone, but her whole body felt tense with annoyance. Part of her wanted to grab Pearl and shake some sense into her, the other half wanted to pull her into a hug and tell her to get some sleep. She looked half dead for Merlin’s sake. 

“The game.” Pearl said, and continued when Garnet just stared at her bewildered “the Quidditch game, I was in the stands but you ignored me, I waited for you outside the changing room when the match was over but you never came back out, you just went straight back to the castle with the rest of the team.” 

Garnet cast her mind back to December, which had been the month of their second match against Hufflepuff. Each house played each other twice in a year, but Hufflepuff’s squad had been so abysmal in September’s game that they’d approached the match arrogantly. It had been an embarrassing loss after Hufflepuff caught the snitch less than twenty minutes in, and she remembered slouching back to the dressing room in defeat. She didn’t remember seeing Pearl. 

“I didn’t know you were there,” the Gryffindor said. 

“I went to all your games Garnet, every single one since you were picked for the team in second year. Even the ones against Ravenclaw. And you knew I always waited outside for you. It was our thing.”

Garnet rubbed between her eyes. The dancing light of the fire was making her feel weary. Or was it the topic of conversation? Maybe a mixture of both. 

“We had a fight. You weren’t speaking to me and I hadn’t seen you in nearly a week, why would you come to support me in a Quidditch game?”

Pearl looked down at her feet, and Garnet was struck again by just how thin and small she was. She suddenly seemed very tiny as she admitted in a small voice, barely audible over the crackling fire. 

“I wanted to apologise.”her voice trembled but she carried on “I was wrong, I did mean most of what I said to you, but I didn’t want to lose you. I was just worried about you. And I didn’t know how to act in class, you were mad at me, so I thought the game was the best time to make up.” Pearl’s voice began to crack and Garnet took a deep breath to steady herself as Pearl started crying. 

“ …and you ignored me at the game. And I missed you so much, the girls in my year don’t talk to me because all I do is study and I’ve been so miserable to be around, but that just made me feel even more isolated!” The volume of Pearl’s voice was rapidly increasing as she became more and more hysterical. It didn’t seem right to shush her, so as she continued:

“They hate me, you hate me, I’m so lonely and I can’t sleep and I’m failing charms and…” Garnet wrapped Pearl in a hug, resting her chin on the top of the Ravenclaw’s head as she sobbed into Garnet’s chest. 

“It’s ok Pearl,” Garnet managed to get out past the lump in her throat, impressed with herself at still managing to keep her voice calm, only a tiny croak as a giveaway that she herself was crying. “Everything’s gonna be ok.”  
______________ 

“Oh my god! Finally!” Amethyst threw her hands up in the air, nearly dropping the extendable ear she was holding. To her right Jenny sat on the steps with her, also holding an extendable ear. 

“I can’t believe it took you getting turned into a ferret to get these two back together. The amount of time you spent researching hexed objects in the castle, you could’ve gone to Hogsmeade, done your homework and actually gotten to explore the castle for real.” 

“Worth it though!” The two third years high fived. “We should probably go to bed, they’re just gonna be crying and hugging each other for hours now and being all soppy and cringeworthy!” 

“You cried last year because I didn’t sit next to you in potions once after we had a fight.” Jenny pointed out and Amethyst covered her face as she felt herself flush. 

“Ugh, you’re never gonna let that go are you? Shut up Jen!” she groaned as the other girl began giggling, and the two climbed up the spiral staircase to the third year’s dorm.   
_______

The pair of fourth years sat on the couch for another hour or so catching up, resting their feet on each other’s knees, before there was a comfortable silence as the pair gazed into the fire lazily. Garnet saw Pearl slump out of the corner of her eye and turned. Sure enough, Pearl had finally fallen asleep. She prodded Pearl’s shoulder with her foot, but got no response, so she begrudgingly forced herself to her feet – otherwise it would only be a matter of time until she fell into the inviting embrace of sleep herself – and continued to try unsuccessfully to wake the Ravenclaw. 

“Pearl?” Garnet shook her gently by the shoulders, but Pearl just mumbled incoherently. In the end Garnet just picked Pearl and her school bag up and awkwardly carried them up to the the fourth floor dorms, laying her on her bed and then shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. She wasn’t sure if their friendship was back to bed sharing stage yet, and didn’t want to make Pearl uncomfortable, so in the end she just took one of the pillows from the bed and cast a duplication spell on it a few times to create a soft mat to sleep on top of the floor, pulling the duvet over her friend and taking the crimson throw from the end of the bed to cover herself.   
______________

She woke up in the bed, and dazedly looked over to see Pearl had taken her spot curled up on the floor. 

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor.” Garnet said blearily, rubbing her eyes. 

“I woke up and I felt terrible about taking your bed. What kind of guest makes their host sleep on the floor?” Pearl babbled nervously. 

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor,” Garnet repeated before closing her eyes. After a moments hesitation she felt Pearl slide into the bed with her, and a portion of her brain immediately began whirring and coming up with some suggestive ideas that she quickly squashed. 

_Now is really not the time!_ She scolded herself, and forced herself to think about her owl Senty instead. She hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, but the Owls were fairly self sufficient at Hogwarts, showing up only at the Owlery for food, and when required to receive or deliver a letter. Pearl’s cat Petal on the other hand was a nuisance, yowling through the window outside classes, clinging to Pearl for days on end before disappearing off to the kitchens without even a fleeting goodbye. She had no idea how the Ravenclaw could put up with that feline. 

“I’m really glad we’re friends again.” Pearl whispered

“Me too,” Garnet mumbled cozily, already half asleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm enjoying writing these hogwarts AUs way too much. This was supposed to be a 1000 word ficlet but ended up tipping the scales at around 3000 words before editing. 
> 
> If you have any requests for this AU please send them to my tumblr! (The URL is Andwecanmessaround)


	4. Chapter 4

Pearl had never been more nervous in her life. Two months ago she’d been unaware that magic even existed – and now she was seconds away from being sorted into a house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most prestigious magic school in the United Kingdom. 

____________  
She’d been far too nervous to do much more than smile and say hi to the two girls opposite her on the Hogwarts Express, one dark haired and light brown eyed, the other with a mousy brown bob and pale green eyes. Pearl spent most of the journey with her head in a book, studying one last time. Her frantic re-read of _Hogwarts: a history_ on the train still hadn’t prepared her for the real life sheer majesty of the school as it came into view, jutting out of the mountainside, the castle was huge – and dotted with several towers as high as the building was wide. The mousy haired girl in her carriage jumped up to the window and Pearl yelped as their hair began cycling through neon shades of red, green, yellow and blue. 

“Is that some kind of charm?” Pearl was in awe. The letter expressly forbade performing magic outside of school so her and her family’s only first hand experience so far with magic was the incredible experience of Diagon Alley. And the harrowing experience at her school where she’d been writing poetry and accidentally turned a flock of seagulls into the ‘spears in flight’ she’d been metaphorically comparing them to. Thankfully no one was impaled, but a representative from the ministry of magic had been round the next day to test Pearl for magical ability, and officially induct her and her family into the wizarding world when it was confirmed. 

“A charm? I’m a metamorphmagus you clod!” the girl laughed and her nose stretched out into a beak before returning to its original shape. 

“Ametto?” None of Pearl’s text books had mentioned this before. 

“Oh sorry, didn’t realise you were a mudblood. It means I can change my appearance without a wand,” the short girl changed her hair into an array of teal feathers as she drew herself up to as large a height as she can muster “it’s a very rare skill, not many people are born with it.”

The skinny, frail looking girl sat next to the metamorphmagus rolled her eyes.

“You’ll have to forgive Peridot, her ego has grown so large it’s swallowed her manners. I’m Lapis, this nerd only answers to Peridot even though her real name is definitely not that obnoxious. We’re cousins, both half blood from the Lazuli family.”

“Half blood?” 

“In some cases one wizarding parent, one muggle - that means non magical - parent. You can be the kid of two wizards and still be half blood though, if they’re both half bloods, like me and Peri and most half bloods.”

“So what did Peridot call me?”

“A mudblood,” Lapis continued, shifting in her seat and furrowing her brow for a second before continuing, staring at her hands rather than Pearl, “means that both of your parents were magical. We don’t know how your kind acquire magic, most theories think it’s like a a dormant gene or something. How are your parents coping with all this anyway?”

Lapis gestured outside of the window, where the grey-blue sea glimmered gold in the sun’s rays, and what looked like a group of griffins veered in the cloudless sky towards them, swooping up and over the carriages at the last second. Pearl knew what she meant though and looked down at her robes in thought. 

The experience was daunting for her parents to say the least. Her mother was a historian, her father a chemistry teacher. Both struggled to reconcile their careers with the knowledge that magic existed, and the fact that they then had to figure out the exchange rate between pounds and galleons by travelling to a bank filled with curses and staffed by goblins hadn’t exactly calmed their nerves. In fact, whilst Pearl had enjoyed Diagon Alley incredibly, she had the feeling her parents found the experience quite stressful. 

“They said they want whatever’s best for me. _Mud_ blood?! I don’t think I like that word, it sounds very…”

“Negative?” A voice finished for her, and Pearl jumped, looking up to see a tall girl with dark skin and curly hair leaning casually on the wall in the doorway. “It is. Muggleborn is the term most of us use. Well, the ones who don’t believe in the ugly notion of blood purity and aren’t future Death Eaters, anyway.” Lapis reddened slightly and Peridot’s feathers turned to angry orange spikes on the top of her head as they both looked at the girl. Pearl had read enough about Death Eaters to be shocked at the stranger’s matter of fact statement. 

“What are you doing in our carriage?” Peridot said, and Pearl could feel the rippling dislike in her words. 

One of the prefects asked me to check if everyone had their robes on. Seems you’re all ready.” She turned to Pearl and gave her what felt like a disappointed look. “I’m Garnet by the way. We’ll be stopping soon.” And she walked away from the carriage as quietly as she’d arrived, though the tension she left behind between the three felt overwhelmingly loud in its silence. 

“Who was that?” Pearl eventually broke the quiet. 

“Garnet Adeniyi. Her mother was a Selwyn – one of the sacred 28 pure blood families – who ran away over a decade ago to marry a muggle. It was a huge scandal.” Lapis said faintly, “I didn’t know she was in our year.”

The uncomfortableness was fortunately cut short by the train pulling to a stop. 

____________

_“Kyeong, Pearl”_

When the Sorting Hat was placed upon her hair, barely a minute had passed before the battered purple hat yelled “ _Ravenclaw!”_

She approached the blue table, joined shortly after by Peridot, who took a seat next to Pearl, to her mild dismay. Pearl had a feeling Peridot was the kind of person that should be avoided in future. It was the tall girl from the carriage who had captivated her, who was currently sat at the red table quietly conversing with a ghost. The hat had taken over four minutes to sort Garnet Adeniyi. Pearl wondered what sort of qualities a person who nearly became a hat stall (she’d read about it in _Hogwarts: a history_ ) could possess to confound the hat so. She seemed so cool on the train, the way she confronted Lapis and Peridot without batting an eyelid. And she knew about muggle culture and didn’t look down on it the way her train companions had. 

There was a groan of disappointment from her left as Lapis Lazuli was sorted into Slytherin.

Pearl couldn’t help but feel she’d made a terrible first impression on the Gryffindor. That hurt look Garnet had flashed her on the train before leaving made Pearl want to sink into the floor just remembering it. She wasn’t sure quite why, but she wanted Garnet Adeniyi’s approval.

Then the headmaster finished her speech (Pearl realised with a start she’d been daydreaming and staring across at the Gryffindors through the entire thing) and clapped her hands together twice. The food for the feast appeared out of thin air much to the delighted gasps of the first years, and as she began to pile her plate with as many vegetarian dishes as she could find near her, all thoughts other than ‘food’ were driven out of Pearl’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First meetings because...why not? I enjoy how this collection of one shots is completely chronologically screwed up so far because I thrive on chaos. ;D


End file.
